


Connie's Universe

by Raptarion



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen, protagonist swap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:18:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raptarion/pseuds/Raptarion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connie has magical adventures with her super powered guardians, the Crystal Gems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Monster on the beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gem monster interrupts a peaceful day on the beach when it attacks the temple.

The wind blows over beach city on another quiet day. The waves lap quietly against the shore. The clouds were providing a great deal of shade as they slowly made their way across the sky. It was as nice a day as anyone could ask for.

Connie rests in her hammock. High above the beach and her house, suspended between two fingers of the massive gem temple statue. She watches the clouds, and listens to the waves. Her favorite new book rests across her torso, abandoned for now to enjoy the day and process the twists and turns of the most recent chapter. Everything was right with the world.

A loud, inhuman screech is heard from the beach below. Maybe that everything was right with the world thought was a bit misplaced. She shifts around to look down to what had made the sound. A monster was rushing across the beach, right for the temple. It looked like some sort of giant scorpion, covered head to tail tip with red scales.  
"That's not good." Connie says, swinging out of her hammock and onto the hand of the giant statue. She rushes over to where she had left her weapons. She straps her sword belt on, picking up the baldric with her second sword as well. She looks out over the beach again to see that the monster had gotten closer to the temple. But the gems had rushed out to confront it. Pearl was grabbed in one of its' massive claws, while Amethyst's whip wrapped around the other to hold it in place. This wasn't doing much though, as she struggled against the beast's strength, and to gain purchase in the shifting sand. Garnet had grabbed hold of the claw gripping pearl, struggling to keep it from crushing her.

Connie wastes no more time rushing down to help. She runs to the rope anchored between one of the fingers of the statue and a boulder on the beach. She leaps up and uses the sheath of the sword on her baldric to create a zipline.  
Suddenly, the monster breaks free of Garnet and the other's, shooting forward right towards the boulder where the rope was anchored. Connie watches in horror as the rope is cut. And suddenly, she's falling. She screams, dropping her sword and grabbing at the rope as it goes slack. She falls until the rope is suddenly pulled taut, and swings her back away from the fight. She almost looses her grip from the force of it, but manages to hang on, swinging through the air in a wide arch, far too high above the beach.

"Connie!" Pearl screams in worry, running after her swinging form.  
"Pearl!" Garnet says angrily, as she abandons her and Amethyst to fight the monster alone. The brief distraction is all the monster needs, smacking her with a claw, and sending her flying into the cliff face.  
"Uh oh." Amethyst says, as the monster turns on her.  
"Alright then you big ugly shellfish! You wanna go. Bring it!" She shouts, leaping backwards as it strikes out with its' tail, burying itself in the sand in the process. Amethyst strikes out with her whip, wrapping it around the thing's tail.  
"Yeah ha! What now hu-WHOA!" Amethyst says, as the creature pulls its' tail free, pulling Amethyst with it. She holds on for dear life as it whips her back and forth.

Meanwhile Pearl is running around below Connie's wildly swinging form.  
"Connie! Drop down now!" Pearl shouts up to her.  
"What?" Connie asks in disbelief.  
"I've got you! Trust me!" Pearl shouts.  
"I... uh... ok you can do this Connie." She whispers to herself. "One. Two. ThreeEEEEEEEE." She screams as she falls through space. True to her word, Pearl catches her... kind of. It's still a rough landing, and Pearl collapses under Connie's falling weight. Connie groans in pain as she pulls herself up.  
"Pearl. Are you alright?" Connie asks, looking down to her mentor.  
"Eh hu huh what?" She garbles, dazed from Connie landing on top of her.

Connie hears a screech right behind her and snaps around to see the monster bearing down on her.  
"Ahh!" She screams, leaping up and drawing her sword. It strikes at her with the tip of its' tail. A crescent, scarlet blade. She side steps the attack, backing up to avoid its' advance. It strikes again, and she uses her sword to deflect the blow to her left, barely avoiding it slicing into her. She back steps to avoid its' next strike, which buries itself in the sand in front of her. Then she sees its' claw striking out. She ducks and rolls under it, seeing an opportunity to flank it. She rushes up to the side of the beast and thrusts her sword towards its' side. With a disheartening chink, the blade worthlessly bounces off of its' hard scales. Then it strikes out at her again with the back of its' claw, faster than she would have expected. She doesn't dodge this one, and takes the blunt of the blow, falling down hard into the sand. She feels her sword leave her hand, and looks up in worry as the monster approaches. She was defenseless.

Then, out of nowhere, Garnet shows up, wrapping her arms around the base of the beast's tail. It looks shocked.  
"I've had enough of you!" She shouts. With a mighty pull, she throws the beast backwards, crashing into a boulder. As soon as it makes contact, Amethyst's whip shoots out, wrapping around the beast and the rock both. It's underbelly is exposed, as it swings their legs around uselessly.  
"Pearl! Now!" Garnet shouts. Pearl, stumbles up from where she was sitting, getting over her dazed state, and summons her spear. She leaps at the exposed underside of the monster, and cuts it from tail to head. With a great poof of smoke, it disappears, leaving behind a crescent shaped gem.

Pearl sighs in relief, then rushes over to Connie. Connie shrinks under the disapproving gaze of her teacher.  
"What were you thinking? You should have stayed up where it was safe. That was reckless, and stupid, and-"  
"FREAKING AMAZING!" Amethyst interrupts.  
"What?!" Pearl asks.  
"Yeah! Did you see her? That thing was all like, 'Shwing! Shwah!' And Connie was all like 'You're going to have to try harder than THAT!' And she just ran under that thing's big claw, and stabbed it like 'No big deal.' It was awesome!" Amethyst says excitedly.  
"You really think I did well?" Connie asks.  
"It was pretty impressive." Garnet says.  
"Excuse me?" Pearl asks in disbelief.  
"She has come a lot further in her training than you gave her credit for Pearl." Garnet says.  
"I... but she's still so... this could have been a fluke." Pearl stutters out.  
"Against a monster that strong? I doubt it." Garnet says.  
"So... what are you saying?" Connie asks, feeling like Garnet was leading to something with this.  
"What ARE you saying Garnet?" Pearl asks, seeming worried what her response would be.  
"I'm saying, I think she's ready to go on missions." Garnet says.

"You mean it! I can finally go with you guys!" Connie asks, practically bursting with excitement.  
"Occasionally. There are still many things we do that are too dangerous for you. But I'll find one that will work." Garnet says.  
"Oh ye-eah! You hear that Connie? You and us? We're going to kick some serious butt together!" Amethyst says, pounding her fist into her palm.  
"Garnet please! I don't think this is a good idea. Just because she fought one monster doesn't mean she's ready to go out on missions." Pearl says, seeming desperate.  
"She can only learn so much from training Pearl. If she doesn't start going out on missions soon, she may as well not go at all." Garnet replies.  
"I... this is... oh fine! But the first sign of real danger, and we send her back alright... please?" Pearl says.  
"I'm not going to bring her on any mission I don't think she can handle." Garnet says.  
"Woo hoo! I'm going on missions! Yeah ha ha!" Connie shouts, jumping and running around the gems in circles.


	2. The three towers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connie goes on her first mission with the crystal gems.

Connie sits on the edge of the cliff, overseeing the sea. She eats celery and peanut butter, and enjoys yet another perfect day. She was crawling with anticipation. She knew she was going on a mission soon. She didn't know when. But soon. Garnet had promised after all. And since she had promised, Connie had been almost to excited to sleep at night. She had redoubled her sword training to get out all her energy. But it wasn't enough. The gems were finally trusting her with serious responsibility. She was giddy at the prospect of helping them. But also terrified of letting them down. Her feelings were in constant turmoil.

"CONNIE!" She hears being called from the beach below. She looks down. Amethyst was yelling up to her. "GET DOWN HERE! GARNET SAYS IT'S MISSION TIME! LET'S GO!"  
"REALLY? I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN!" She calls back. She shoves the rest of her lunch into her mouth and chews quickly. With that done, she grabs onto the rope anchored to the top of the cliff. She quickly climbs down, and swings into the attic of her home. She loved her house. It was practically a giant jungle gym filled with small landings. One landing had her bed. Another had the TV. Another the washer and dryer. There were stairs between each one. But she preferred to use the monkey bars or ropes that connected them all. It was a lot more fun. She finally makes it to the ground floor, where the kitchen, living room, and bathroom were. The gems waited on the warp pad just outside the temple door.

"About time. Come on we've been waiting for like, an hour." Amethyst says.  
"It's been two minutes." Pearl says.  
"Same difference." Amethyst dismisses. Connie rushes over to the warp pad to stand next to the gems.

"Are you ready?" Garnet asks.  
"Absolutely." Connie says, nodding in determination.  
"Well then, we're off." She says.

The warp pad lights up beneath her feet. She's surrounded by light. And suddenly she's weightless.  
"Ah!" Connie says, startled.  
"Are you OK?" Pearl asks, immediately worried.  
"I wasn't expecting this. I thought the warp pad just sort of, instantly sent you where you needed to go? You never mentioned floating." Connie says, she turns around in air. Only to realize she was spinning slowly, and the gems were turning upside down. She shifts in a panicked attempt to right herself. But that just makes the problem worse. Now she was floating up, away from the gems.  
"Ah! Oh no!" Connie says, increasingly scared.  
"Connie. Just like swim practice." Pearl says calmly. Connie immediately stops moving, and holds her breath. Garnet reaches out and pulls her back down towards them, turning her right side up in the process.  
"There, see. You're fine... Connie you can breath now." Pearl says. Connie does so.  
"Sorry. I panicked." Connie says.  
"That's OK. You'll get the hang of it." Pearl reassures, putting her hand on Connie's shoulder to ensure she stays in place.

Gravity suddenly takes hold again. Connie's knees buckle a bit from the unexpected return of her weight.  
"We've arrived." Garnet states, a bit redundantly.  
Connie looks out to see a jungle. Paths of stone, almost overtaken by nature, lead out in several directions. Massive trees almost blotted out the sun with their canopies. The sound of birds and insects was almost deafening.  
"Whoa. This place is amazing." Connie says, marveling at the lush forest.  
"Yeah it's alright." Amethyst says, digging something out of her ear.  
"We should get moving. Which way Garnet?" Pearl asks.  
"That way." She says, indicating one of the less worn stone paths off to the right.  
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Connie says, rushing off ahead.

She stays within sight of the gems as she leads the way. Plants with leaves as big as she was lined the path. Occasionally a frog would hop up on top of the leaves, and catch a dragon fly. She looks at a lizard on a tree trunk, so well camouflaged that she almost missed it. When she gets too close, it darts away, faster than she would have thought possible.  
"Connie, keep up." Amethyst says. She turns to see the gems had gotten ahead of her while she was busy looking at the small critters along the way. She rushes to close the distance.  
"Wow." Connie says as they clear the crest of a slope to look down upon a large clearing. In the center was a lake, with three triangular towers of smooth white stone capped with glass pyramids. "Are the towers what we're here for?"  
"Yes and no. The lake holds an important gem artifact. But the water has a strong magic, which makes it impossible for us to get to. The towers will call the artifact to the surface so we can retrieve it." Pearl explains.  
"All three towers have a switch at the top. They must all be activated within seconds of each other, or we will not be able to retrieve the artifact for a year." Garnet says.  
"Which would be bad. Because we need this artifact to restore the lunar sea spire." Pearl says. She projects a hologram from her gem of the structure in question. "It's in bad repair. We're not sure it will survive another year.  
"So if we don't get it now, then this spire place is going to collapse?" Connie asks.  
"Exactly." Pearl says, ending the projection.

"We need to split up so we can each activate the towers at the same time." Garnet says.  
"Of course. Connie and I can take one of the towers, while you and Amethyst each take one of your own." Pearl says.  
"No. Connie goes with Amethyst." Garnet says.  
"What? But... why?" Pearl asks.  
"This mission is meant to assess Connie's abilities. And you, as her teacher, will have a very biased opinion of her skill. Amethyst is more objective." Garnet explains.  
"Well you heard G-squad. It's you and me Connie. Let's go wreck some stuff!" Amethyst says, drawing out her whip and rushing toward one of the towers. Connie excitedly follows after her.  
"Oh! Be careful you two." Pearl shouts after them.  
"We will!" Connie shouts back.  
"Don't worry P! Me and Connie got this!" Amethyst calls over her shoulder.

Connie and Amethyst arrive at the base of the tower. The outside was covered with vines creeping up the sides. An imposing set of double doors, at least ten feet tall, serve as the entrance to the tower. Amethyst pushes against the door. With a grunt, and a scraping of stone on stone, it opens up. The inside of the tower is dimly lit by yellow crystals along the walls. Many of them are broken, or far dimmer than they seem like they should be. There was also a lot of stonework that had been cracked or chipped away over the years. Pebbles and dust heavily littered the floor. The stairs wrapping around the walls of the tower were in the worst shape, some steps almost completely crumbled away.

"Are all the old gem structures you visit like this?" Connie asks, kicking over a larger chunk of stone that had fallen from the staircase.  
"Pretty much. Nobody 's bothering to take care of them anymore. So they're mostly just falling apart." Amethyst says, taking the lead up the stairs. Connie follows after, making a lot of jumps to get past the steps that were too damaged, or looked too unstable. She looks to the walls as she ascends occasionally. Old murals that had all but worn away to nothing decorate them.  
"This place probably looked amazing back in its' prime." Connie comments.  
"I dunno. I think it looks pretty cool now." Amethyst says.  
"In a 'crumbling ruins' kind of way yeah. And I guess it's for the best the bad gems who made it aren't around anymore."

They make it to a landing. A chandelier of sorts made from more of those yellow crystals hangs from the ceiling. The crystals aren't glowing at all, leaving the room even darker than the one below it.  
"Ominous huh?" Amethyst remarks.  
"Yeah. Let's hurry up to the top. We don't want to leave Garnet and Pearl waiting." Connie says, heading for the stairs.  
"Connie look out!" Amethyst suddenly shouts. Connie feels Amethyst crash into her, as a loud screech is heard from above. They tumble to the ground several feet away. Connie gets up and looks back to see what Amethyst had grabbed her out of the way of. She sees a twisted mass of feathers and claws easily three times her size rising up from where she had just been standing. It gets up and spreads two dark wings. With a caw it leaps forward, clawed feet outstretched to attack them. Connie and Amethyst both leap away on either side of the attack. Connie draws the sword on her back, holding it out defensively.

The giant twisted bird looks at her, and opens it's menacingly sharp beak.  
"Keep your breath. Keep your breath." Connie repeats to herself. She watches the movements of the bird intently. Keeping her distance so she would have time to react. She had to take two steps for every one step it took. It rears it's head back. She can see it's about to strike. She prepares to sidestep out of the-  
"HEADS UP!" Amethyst shouts. Once again, she feels Amethyst crash into her. But this time they didn't fall too the floor. But up in the air. Amethyst had wrapped her whip around the chandelier, and had swung down to grab Connie. When Amethyst's feet reaches the wall, she starts running against it, sending them around and around the room. The bird below flaps its' wings and starts rising up.

"Hey Connie. Don't tell Pearl about this next part." Amethyst says.  
"About what next part?" Connie asks, worried where Amethyst was going with this.  
"The part where I drop you on top of the bird." Amethyst says. Suddenly she jumps away from the wall, and drops Connie down. Connie screams as she sees the back of the bird rushing up to meet her. She turns the sword around in her hand, and plunges it into the corrupted beast's back. It screams, and then turns awkwardly in the air. It smashes into a wall, jostling Connie around. She holds onto the handle of her sword for dear life, screaming the whole time, as they spiral to the ground. With a crash that seems to shake her to her very core, they land. Connie leaps up, and rushes up to the head of her enemy. She draws the other sword strapped to her waist, and cleaves at its' neck. With a poof of smoke, the bird disappears below her.

She kneels on the floor, panting. Amethyst runs up behind her, and slaps her on the back.  
"Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about. You go girl!" Amethyst says. Connie just keeps panting. "Uh... wow you OK Connie?"  
"That... was... INCREDIBLE!" Connie exclaims. Amethyst laughs. "I did it! I took out my first gem monster! Ugh my heart feels like it's going to burst out of my chest. I feel a bit light headed. I can't believe that just happened. I was falling, and then I was on the bird, and then the bird was falling, and we crashed, and, and..."  
"Ha ha! Slow down, I can barely keep up." Amethyst says.  
"Guuuu I can't help it! I feel so ALIVE!" Connie says.  
"You did good Connie. Bet you can't wait to tell the others how awesome you were huh?" Amethyst asks.  
"Yeah! Come on, let's head up to the top. Sooner we activate that switch, the sooner I can tell Pearl and Garnet." Connie says, running to the staircase.

They ascend to the top of the tower, arriving in the glass pyramid she had seen from the edge of the valley. In the center of the room on a pedestal reminiscent of the tower itself, with a lever facing in the upwards position. She looked out to the other towers past the glass. She saw Pearl pacing back and forth in one of the towers. Even as she spots Pearl, she looks over and sees her. Pearl waves, seeming very excited to see her. She had probably been worrying. Connie looks over to the other tower to see Garnet. Connie waves to Garnet, who nods, and points towards the lever. Connie heads over and looks back to Garnet, awaiting her signal to flip the switch, remembering that they needed to do it all at once. Garnet raises a gloved hand, and counts down from five. When the countdown was done, she lowers her hand, and pulls her lever. A beam of light rises out of the top of the pedestal. Connie glances over to see Pearl do the same with her lever. A similar beam of light rises out of the pedestal to the tip of the glass pyramid. Then the light shoots out to Garnet's tower. Connie pulls on her lever.

But it doesn't move.  
"Uh! Amethyst!" Connie says in panic.  
"What what?" Amethyst asks, rushing over.  
"It. Won't. Budge!" Connie says, pulling desperately on the lever with all her might. Amethyst reaches out and pulls with her.  
"HNNNNNGGG! COME ONNNNNN! Just a little harder!" Amethyst grunts out, pulling down with Connie to no avail. Connie looks out to the other pyramids. The light from Garnet and Pearl's pedestals was starting to flicker. Pearl and Garnet look on with worry.  
"We have to hurry!" Connie says.  
"I'm NOT letting some stupid lever get the best of me!" Amethyst says. Her form glows, and shifts. Muscles expand as she takes on the form of her wrestling persona.  
"Come on Purple Puma! You got this!" Connie shouts in encouragement.  
"You. Know it." She grunts out. With a creaking of ancient gears, the lever inches down, before finally jerking into position. Light erupts from the top of the pedestal. The tips of all three towers connect with beams of brilliant white light for several seconds. Then the beams redirect themselves to shine into the lake. The water glows brightly, before the light all condenses into the bottom of the lake. Slowly, it rises up, and breaks the surface. Connie can't see what it is from this high up. But excitement still wells up inside her. They had done it! It was a close call with the lever getting stuck, but they had triumphed. Her fist mission was a success.

At that moment a shadow falls over her. She looks up, and her heart jumps up to her throat.  
"GET DOWN!" She shouts to Amethyst, as she jumps to the stairs for cover. Just in time, as another giant corrupted bird crashes through the glass of the pyramid. It was much, MUCH larger than the last one. Enormous shards of glass rain down as the pyramid is shattered into a thousand pieces. Amethyst dodges out of the way of the larger pieces raining down on her as she makes the way to the stairs with Connie.  
She watches the bird take off again, and she quickly looses sight of it, too afraid to get a better look in case it came back.

"What now?" Connie asks.  
"We need to get back to the others. Come on!" Amethyst shouts, running back down the stairs. Connie follows, taking them three or four at a time whenever the repair of the steps would allow. They rush back out the door, Connie not hesitating despite her fear she might be swooped up by that monster at any moment. She wasn't about to cower inside while the others handled this on their own. She didn't know what she could do, but she was a part of this team too now.  
They run across the grass, looking up to the sky in case the bird swooped down to attack them. They rushed to meet Pearl at the base of her tower, Garnet likewise heading for the same spot.

"We need to take that thing out. It's got an advantage in the air like that, so we need to find some way to ground it." Pearl says as they show up.  
"Maybe we can clip its' wings somehow? Connie suggests.  
"Excellent plan Connie. I'll use the beam attack of my spear to do that. Once it's down, we surround it. Amethyst, try to wrap your whip around its' beak so it can't bite us." Pearl says.  
"You got it P!" Amethyst says, already calling out her whip.  
"Connie. Stay in cover. Let us handle this." Pearl says.  
"What?! But-" Connie starts.  
"Listen to Pearl Connie. This enemy is too dangerous for you to fight." Garnet interrupts. Suddenly there's a cawing sound as the bird comes back into view, dive bombing the group.

"Run!" Pearl shouts, jumping out of the way of the diving enemy, and firing bolts from her spear. They hit their target, but seem to have no effect. Connie runs around the side of the tower, narrowly avoiding the bird's claws. She peeks around the side of the tower to watch the gems fight. Amethyst wraps her whip around the feet of the bird while it's low to the ground.  
"You're not going anywHOA!" She screams, being pulled into the air with the bird.  
"Amethyst!" Pearl shouts in worry. The bird starts to shake its' foot, jostling Amethyst from side to side.  
"Gah, ah, wah! Someone catch meeeee!" Amethyst shouts, letting go of her whip and plummeting to the ground. Pearl breaks her fall as best she can.  
"Oomph." Pearl exclaims, collapsing under Amethyst's falling weight.

"Well THAT was a bust!" She complains, reaching down to help Pearl up.  
"It's no use. My attacks just bounce off of it." Pearl exclaims in despair, accepting the helping hand.  
"Well what are we supposed to do then?" Amethyst asks.  
"... Garnet! Distract it for just a minute." Pearl says.  
"On it." Garnet says simply. She picks up a large rock, and hurls it up to the bird on its' next divebomb. The bird barely maneuvers out of the way of the projectile. It turns its' attention to Garnet, and chases after her, as Garnet runs away. She barely manages to dive out of the way of one of its' claws as she rushes to take cover inside another tower.

"Come on Amethyst." Pearl says, dragging her away from the line of sight of their foe on the other side of the tower where Connie was hiding.  
"What's your plan Pearl?" Amethyst asks.  
"Isn't it obvious." Pearl says with a smirk, bowing to Amethyst, her gem glowing. Amethyst grins.  
"Oh. Yeah, I don't know why I din't think of this myself." Amethyst says. She returns the bow, her gem glowing in turn.  
Connie gasps in excitement, and sits back to watch intently.

Pearl and Amethyst begin to dance. Amethyst's movements sporadic and loose. Pearl's measured and careful. But they each had a way of complimenting the other. The dance came to a close as Pearl makes a dramatic fall back into Amethyst's waiting arms. She's dipped so low to the ground it was a wonder her hair didn't touch the dirt. Their forms glowed, shifted together. With a flash of light, Pearl and Amethyst were gone. Opal stood in their place.

Opal wastes no time in rushing around the side of the tower. Connie follows so she can watch what happens. She sees the bird circling the tower Garnet had run to take shelter in. Opal draws out her bow, and fires an arrow at their airborne enemy. It screams with pain, and turns around to retaliate. Opal rushes under its' claws, and fires a line of arrows at the wall of the tower. The white energy piercing the stone, and solidifies upon contact, creating a pseudo staircase. She jumps from arrow to arrow, until she was at the top of the tower. Connie sees Garnet appear in the top room through the glass. She smashes a large hole through the glass, and positions herself to give Opal a boost. Opal jumps down into the cupped gauntlet's of Garnet's hands, who hurls her up into the air. Connie looses her against the light of the sun.

The bird flies upwards after Opal. Then the barrage hits. Striking down from the blind spot created by the sun, a hail of while energy smashes into and around the bird. Its' wings falter, and it shrieks in pain. Another barrage hits, the bird looses its' balance in the air, and starts to plummet. Connie suddenly see's Opal's falling form, no longer in position to be blinded by the light of the sun. He bow was drawn, and once she was almost parallel with the bird, she fires again. The arrow doesn't split this time, instead piercing straight through the beast's core. It creates a massive hole in the bird's chest, continuing on to hit the slope at the edge of the valley. It pierces into the earth, creating an explosion of dirt, and leaving behind a smoldering crater in its' wake. Their foe begins to evaporate into smoke, before finally poofing. A gem falls to the soft ground below. Opal lands next to it, with an amazing amount of grace. She quickly reaches down to entrap the gem in a bubble, and sends the bubble off to the temple.

Connie rushes out now that the danger was past, making a beeline for Opal.  
"That was incredible!" She shouts, smashing into Opal's leg and hugging it. Opal giggles.  
"I was, wasn't I?" She says smugly.  
"It's so good to see you again. It feels like it's been forever." Connie says. Opal reaches down and picks Connie up.  
"Oh I'm sorry about that. I know how much you can miss auntie Opal." She says playfully. "I swear you get taller every time I see you."  
"Yeah, I tend to do that a lot. Get taller I mean." Connie says.  
"Well you may be getting bigger, but I bet you haven't changed a bit." Opal said.  
"I've changed plenty. I'm going on missions now and everything." Connie says confidently.  
"You have haven't you. I bet you're still ticklish though." She says mischievously.

"What? Wait Opal don't-" She says, but was too late. Opal brings her up to her mouth and blows a raspberry on her stomach. Connie starts laughing in spite of herself. "Opal- ha ha ha!- Sto-stop it!"  
"You two seem to be having fun." Garnet says, walking up with a smile.  
"Tell Op-ha ha! Opal to stop it!" Connie says.  
"Oh come on, why should I have to stop?" Opal asks.  
"I'm too old for stuff like this now." Connie insists, glad to have her breath back.  
"Well that can't possibly be true. Look how small you are! If you're smaller than me, you must be young enough for Raspberries." Opal says.  
"But you're giant! Everyone's smaller than you. Even Garnet." Connie points out.  
"She is, isn't she?" Opal asks, turning to Garnet.  
"Opal, what's with that lo- HEY! What are you doing put me do-GAH!" Garnet says, suddenly getting picked up by Opal, and receiving the same treatment Connie had gotten moments before. Connie bursts into laughter at the sight. This was ridiculous.  
"Opal! This is ridiculous, put me down!" Garnet cries out. Connie falls down from laughing so hard, clutching her aching sides.  
"Opal! This is- keh- absurd! S-pfft- stop it!" Garnet shouts, struggling to hold in laughter. Fortunately for her, Opal is too, and finally stops, putting her down.  
"I'm sorry. HA HA HA! I was just playing around. I thought it would be funny. HA HA HA!" Opal says, doubled over in spasms of laughter.  
Garnet readjusts her glasses, which had gone askew. "Please don't do that again."  
"I promise. I promise." Opal says. "I've had my fun. We can go home now."

"Uh. We still need to get that thing right." Connie asks, pointing out to the gem artifact which had risen out from the water.  
"Oh right. That's the whole reason we came here." Opal says.  
"Connie. Would you like to do the honers?" Garnet asks.  
"You want me to get it?" Connie asks.  
"Sure. Just walk out and grab it. The water won't let you fall under." Garnet says.  
Connie does as Garnet says, taking a tentative step out onto the water. True to her word, the water didn't let her go under. It was as solid as stone. She walks out across the lake, and takes the artifact floating above the water. It was a statue depicting a woman she didn't recognize. She rushes back to the gem, holding their target in hand.  
"Good job. We've got what we came for." Garnet says.  
"Yeah. Connie did great today. You didn't see it, but she fought another big bird in the tower. And she... I..." Opal says, suddenly wavering. With a flash of light, they suddenly split apart.  
"You DROPPED Connie on top of a corrupted gem monster?" Pearl asks in disbelief.  
"Uh... yessss?" Amethyst says, looking like the cat that stole the canary.  
"I SPECIFICALLY told you to BE CAREFUL." Pearl shrieks.  
"What matter is that we beat the monster and got out safely right?" Connie says, jumping to Amethyst's defense.  
"Well yes but... I... oh I WISH you wouldn't be so reckless." Pearl says.  
"Amethyst wouldn't have let me get hurt. If something had gone wrong she would have stepped in and saved me. Right?" She says, turning to Amethyst.  
"Yeah. I had a backup plan Pearl. You know me. I wouldn't just throw Connie into danger like that if I didn't know what I was doing." She says. Pearl rubs one of her arms.  
"I just worry is all. Connie isn't like us. She's human. She's far more fragile." Pearl says.  
"I can still help." Connie says.  
"That you can." Garnet says. "Come on. Let's head back to the temple. This mission was a success. Let's act like it."  
"Yeah! I'm going to eat three of everything from the big donut!" Amethyst says.  
"Yeah! Donuts!" Connie says excitedly. She races Amethyst back to the warp pad, Garnet and Pearl following behind.

"She really is ready for this stuff isn't she?" Pearl asks.  
"I think so yes." Garnet replies.  
"I just... sort of hoped she could be ignorant of all this. Like everyone else." Pearl sighs.  
"We decided that wasn't an option when we took her in. She may not be a gem. But gem things are a part of her world." Garnet says sagely.  
"She's... going to be OK right?" Pearl asks.  
"If we have anything to say about it? Yes. And we have an awful lot of say in the matter." Garnet says confidently.  
"Good. She's going to be fine." Pearl says, calmed. They make it to the warp, which Amethyst and Connie had already used to return to the temple. In a flash of light, they leave the jungle behind.


	3. Onion shadow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connie and Amethyst have a big fight.

Connie wakes up to the smell of hot dogs cooking. She jumps out of bed and climbs down the rope leading to the floor of the living room. Amethyst was in the kitchen, with a pan full of hot dogs on the stove. A plate of already cooked hot dogs lays on the counter.  
"Morning, Squirt." Amethyst says.  
"Morning Mom. Are we having hot dogs for breakfast?" She asks, sitting down at the counter separating the kitchen and living room.  
"You bet." She says, putting the rest of them on the plate. She grabs the empty packaging for the processed meat and tosses it into her mouth.  
"Hot dogs don't seem like a very breakfasty food." Connie says.  
"So?" She asks. Connie doesn't have a good response to that.

Amethyst puts a bottle of ketchup and mustard next to the plate of hot dogs. She loads a hot dog up with mustard and hands it to Connie.  
"Whoa. That is way too much mustard." Connie says.  
"Oh really? Easy fix." Amethyst says. She reaches over and scoops a bunch of the mustard off with a finger. The dabs the dollop of the condiment on Connie's nose. "Ha ha! There, fixed!"  
Connie wipes the mustard off with a napkin while Amethyst laughs. She grins wickedly then grabs the ketchup bottle. She squeezes hard and sends ketchup flying into Amethyst's face. Amethyst stares at her. For a few seconds, nothing happens. Then her hand shoots out to grab the mustard bottle. Amethyst's counter attack of mustard is ducked under as Connie slides off her chair. She rushes to the other end of the room as Amethyst runs around the counter. She upends the living room table and uses it as a shield as a stream of mustard flies right at her.  
"Don't think that table is going to save you Connie." Amethyst says, running straight at her. Connie blind fires over the table with her ketchup bottle, before rushing back to the rope in the center of the room. Amethyst fires more mustard, but Connie was already climbing up the rope, her weapon between her teeth. She swings the rope back and forth as Amethyst fires up with more of the bright yellow condiment.

Suddenly, the squirting of the mustard takes on a pitiful sound.  
"Oh no!" Amethyst says.  
"Out of ammo already? Too bad. Because I have plenty!" Connie cries out, holding onto the rope with one hand and squirting down at Amethyst with the other. She runs away to the living room, and Connie swings over and lets go of the rope. She lands on the couch in front of Amethyst.  
"It's over! I have the high ground!" She cries, pointing her ketchup down at Amethyst in victory.  
"Don't be so sure!" Amethyst says, pulling out a bottle of relish.  
"Oh no!" Connie says.  
"Oh yes!" Amethyst cries.

The sound of the temple door opening causes them both to freeze.  
"Ahh! What is going on here?!" Pearl cries out in shock.  
"Uh oh." Amethyst says.  
"Busted." Connie says.  
"I don't believe you two. Look at this place! It's a total mess." Pearl rants, gesturing around at the condiment stained room.  
"Oh lighten up P. We we're just having a bit of fun." Amethyst says.  
"I don't see why your fun has to involve getting mustard all ov-GAH!" Pear says, crying out when she's interrupted by Amethyst squirting a glob of relish at her. She dodges out of the way.  
"STOP THAT!" Pearl screams. Connie struggles to hold in laughter.  
"You too Connie. Stop laughing." Pearl says sternly.  
"Sorry ma'am." Connie says.  
"I have to go now, somebody called about their engine making a weird rattling noise and I'm already late to go fix that. You two are both going to clean this place up while I'm away." Pearl says.

Peal opens the front door.  
"I expect this place to be spotless when I get back." She says, before departing.  
"We got our work cut out for us, don't we?" Connie asks, looking around at the mess of mustard and ketchup all over the floor and walls.  
"Yeah... well, I say we cheat." Amethyst says slyly, heading to the temple door.  
"I don't think we can just shove the mess into your room. This isn't like my laundry." Connie says.  
"Nah, we're not doing that. I think there's something in my room that can help. I'm going to look for it." Amethyst says.  
"Oh! Can I help look?" Connie asks excitedly.  
Amethyst turns around with a look of shock.  
"Connie! I'm surprised at you. You KNOW that the temple is dangerous, and that you're strictly forbidden from entering." Amethyst says.

A couple seconds of silence pass. Then they both start laughing.  
"Nah, I'm joshing you. Come on." She says, turning to the door and opening it up. They step into the labyrinthine junk heap that is Amethyst's room. Amethyst leads the way past several large piles of odds and ends gathered over the years.  
"I think it was... somewhere around... here." Amethyst says, reaching an alcove overflowing with junk. "You start on that end of the pile, I'll start over here."  
Connie begins picking up random items and tossing it over her shoulder.  
"So, what am I looking for?" She asks.  
"It's some gem thing. You'll know it when you see it." Amethyst responds, removing a surf board from the pile and causing an avalanche of garbage on her end of the pile. Connie continues to pick up things on her end. At one points she removes a diver's helmet from the pile, causing a small shift in weight on some of the other items. Connie watches this effect snowball slowly for a second before standing up and stepping calmly to the side. She watches as the pile leans, almost as if in slow motion, before collapsing suddenly. Junk is sent scattering as it falls heavily. Connie can't help but giggle at the enormous mess it made. She didn't have to clean this one up. Amethyst didn't mind her room being messy. If anything she prided herself in it.

Connie climbs up on the fallen junk, coming across a treasure chest that had popped open in the fall. A straight band of silver inlaid with black stones rests inside on top of a pile of sea shells.  
"Hey! Is this what we're looking for?" Connie asks, holding it up.  
"Yeah! Toss it down here." She says. Connie does so, and Amethyst snatches it out of the air.  
"Now we're in business. Come on, I'll show you this thing in action." Connie jumps down and follows Amethyst back to her room. "Now. Watch this." Amethyst says, clearly enjoying the prospect of showing off the gem artifact. She slaps the silver band down on her forearm. Black strips of cloth spring out one side, wrap around her arm, and latch on to the other side. The black stones begin to... well one would almost say they were glowing, but instead of letting off light, they let off darkness. A ball of shadows began to appear in her hand. Once it was done growing, she drops it to the ground. It splashes out, like liquid. Then, it rose up in the shape of a small humanoid figure, with a jaggedly shaped head. It was a being made of shadow, a little shorter than Connie.

"OK then, we need this place cleaned up. So get to it. I want all this mustard and ketchup gone, pronto!" Amethyst says. The shadowy figure bows at the waist and begins running around. It grabs a rag and starts darting around the room, wiping off every surface with an incredible speed. Almost faster than Connie could believe, the room was spotless.  
"Pretty cool right?" Amethyst asks.  
"Yeah. That thing's awesome." Connie says.  
"Alright little guy, back into the bracer." Amethyst says, before raising her hand. The little man is sucked up into a shadowy ball again, as if through an invisible straw. Amethyst takes the bracer off and tosses it onto the couch. She heads over to the plate of hot dogs and grabs a handful, tossing one into her mouth.  
"Shouldn't you put that back into your room?" Connie asks, pointing to the bracer.  
"Eh. I'll do it later. I'm going to head out. You take care kiddo." Amethyst says, putting her arms behind her head and heading out the door.  
"Later, Mom!" Connie calls after her.

She grabs one of the hot dogs they had made at the start of this mess and finally enjoys breakfast. When she was done she looks over to the bracer Amethyst had left on the couch.  
"...probably a good idea if I store that somewhere safe for now." Connie says to herself. She picks it up and puts it in the closet. When she closes the door, she spots something right next to her. She jumps up in surprise, before seeing what, or rather who it was.  
"Oh. Hey Onion." She says, kneeling back down so she was near eye level with the strange blonde haired kid. "I didn't hear you come in. How you doing buddy?"  
Onion leans in and mumbles to her.  
"Uh huh. Sure. I got an extra bag you can have." She says, heading over to the cupboard. She grabs a bag of chips down and hands it to Onion.  
"It alright if I come with?" Connie asks. Onion just strides off, and Connie follows. Onion was a bit hard to read sometimes. But she feels she understands him better than most people.

They make their way into town, ending up about a block away from the arcade. But that wasn't Onion's destination. He takes a turn down an ally. He stops just in front of a dumpster and throws the bag of chips on the ground. Connie watches in interest as Onion jumps up and down on the bag for a good minute. She doesn't ask what he's doing. She figures she would see what he was up to soon. Or maybe she wouldn't. Even if she understood Onion better than most, she didn't really understand him that well at all. But he was still a really interesting kid, and she enjoyed hanging out with him. Even if she mostly just followed him around and watched him do odd things most the time.

After jumping up and down on the bag for a while, Onion immediately walked over to the dumpster, and heaved at the back corner. The wheels inch the dumpster away from the wall. Connie decides to go over and help, moving it with much more ease than the smaller child. She looks behind the dumpster to see what Onion was getting at. She sees a swarming line of ants coming out of a crack in the wall. Onion walks over to the ruined bag of chips and opens it up. Then he walks over to the swarm of ants, and starts pouring the crushed up bits of chips next to them. He moves the bag around as he pours, until eventually the pile of crushed chips spelled out his name in cursive.

"That's cool. Can I try?" Connie asks. Onion hands her the bag. She pours out the chips to spell her name in cursive as well. There are barely enough in the bag to do so. She watches with Onion as the ants swarmed over their names. It was fascinating, watching all those tiny bugs moving with such purpose together. Slowly they begin to chip away at their names on the asphalt. After a while, the novelty of watching the ants work wears off.  
"Well that was fun. I think I'm going to go now... Onion?" Connie says, looking around to see that he had left.

She shrugs and decides to head to the arcade. It wasn't all that weird for Onion to disappear suddenly for no reason. He just came and went as he pleased, and you rarely see his arrival or departure if he can help it.  
"Hey Connie!" Mr. Smiley says as she enters the arcade.  
"Hey Mr. Smiley!" She says, giving him a wave before heading over to the Hungry Round arcade machine.  
"You know Connie, we got a Ms Hungry Round arcade machine just over there." Mr. Smiley points out.  
"Ms Hungry Round is just Hungry Round with a bow and some eyeliner. There's nothing else that defines her as a character, and I for one refuse to support a game that thinks a girl can be summed up by cute clothes and some makeup... also it's easier to get a kill screen in the original version so I don't have to waste as many quarters." Connie says.  
"Uh... OK then." Mr. Smiley says uncomfortably.

Connie plays for a little while, getting past a little over a dozen screens before she notices something out of the corner of her eye. She looks over to the entrance of the arcade. There, she sees the little shadow creature that Amethyst had summoned earlier.  
"Huh? What are you doing here?" She asks, turning her attention away from the game. She can hear the sound of the character's death as she eyes the shadowy figure from across the room. As she watches, another one appears. Then another. The sound of the character's deaths continue to play again and again.  
The shadows all move up to one of the arcade games. One of them unplugs it, and then they all lift it up, and run off. Mr. Smiley notices and screams after them to stop. Connie runs after them as the game over sound plays from her game.  
"Connie! You know anything about this?" He asks on her way out.  
"No." She lies, chasing the shadows out of the shop. They moved fast considering they were weighed down by that game.

She follows the running figures around a corner. Then, another shadow suddenly jumps down right in front of her, apparently having been waiting on a roof. She stops in her tracks. The thing is looking straight at her... she assumes. It doesn't have eyes with which to do that.  
"Where are you all coming from?" She asks. The figure doesn't respond, instead it lunges at her with outstretched clawed hands. She jumps back and runs in the opposite direction. This is what she gets for not bringing her swords with her!

She ducks around an alleyway, the sound of the shadow's feet hammering the concrete behind her. She grabs the lid of a trashcan before turning the corner out of the alley. She waits and listens to the sound of the footsteps. When they approach the end of the alley, she smacks out with the lid, hitting her pursuer hard in what passed for its' face, and sending it sprawling onto their back. She starts running again in the direction that group of figures that had stolen the game had gone.

She runs into a scene of chaos a few streets down. More of the shadowy figures, some as much as six times as large as the ones she had seen so far, were causing mayhem. They were jumping up and down on cars, breaking in through windows, and stealing everything from small toys, to mailboxes, to streetlights. The crystal gems were in the midst of the chaos, fighting the shadows left and right. Garnet was ducking and weaving between two of the larger figures. Amethyst was using her whip to swing around a smaller shadow like some sort of wrecking ball. And Pearl gracefully moved from one group of shadows to another, drawing their attention by stabbing one or two, then quickly rushing away when she had their attention. She had a very large crowd chasing after her that she was taking apart one by one. Each shadow slain dissipated into dark mist.

Connie rushes over to Amethyst.  
"I need a weapon. But Pearl is distracted." She says.  
"Leave it to me." She says, finally smashing the shadow wrapped in her whip hard enough into the ground to cause it do disappear. She then rushes at the group following Pearl, curling up into a ball and dashing through them. The crowd turns their attention to her as she causes a massive dent in their numbers. Connie rushes over once Pearl was done with the stragglers.  
"I don't have my swords with me. You have some spares right?" She asks.  
"Of course. One moment." She responds, before putting her hands to her gem. A glow emerges from her gem, and a curved sword in an ornate scabbard emerges. Connie snatches it out of the air.  
"We need to find the gem artifact that's causing this. Someone must have stolen it." Connie says.  
"How do you know this is being caused by a gem artifact?" Pearl asks.  
"Uh... Amethyst... told me about it once." Connie responds.  
"Amethyst left a gem artifact lying around outside the temple didn't she?" Pearl asks.  
"It was hidden though! I don't know how anyone would have just stumbled across it..." Connie says, before suddenly realizing who it was. Only one other person had been around when she hid it.

Garnet and Amethyst, haven finished off their enemies, rush over to join Pearl and Connie.  
"So what's our plan?" Amethyst asks.  
"Well we know where the shadows are originating from. But we're having trouble getting to it." Garnet says. She points up the street, where a huge group of the shadow people had just turned the corner.  
"We need to fight our way to the end of the street. But by the time we finish one off, two more take their place." Pearl says.  
"Let's head down the alleyways. The larger ones cant get in there, and it'll be easier to fight them in a choke point." Connie says.  
"Most of the monsters are staying to the street. So long as we move quickly, this will work. Let's go." Garnet says, taking point. The others run after her, rushing through the back alleys to find the source of the growing shadow army.

They emerge just outside the park, where a huge crowd of the shadowy monsters had amassed. They came to and fro, going out to collect loot, or returning to throw it into a huge pile. At the center of it all was a twister of shadows and wind. Connie looked on in awe. She knew she had to get there.  
"The bracer must be in there. We need to get past all of those shadows first though. This will be tricky. We need a strategy." Pearl says. But before she can say anything else, Connie begins sprinting straight for the center of the park.  
"CONNIE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Pearl screams after her. Connie doesn't stop. She repeats her mantra in her head over and over as she makes her way towards the center of the park.  
"Keep your breath." Her blades slices through a shadow, and it disappears.  
"Keep your breath." Her sheath brings the feet out from under a shadow.  
"Keep your breath." She ducks under the fist of a giant shadow, and runs between its' legs.

After ducking and weaving and slicing her way through the crowd, she finds herself at the edge of the twister. The wind was so loud it drowned out her thoughts, and it was so strong it threatened to send her flying. She slowly marches the last few steps to the wall of shadows, before walking through to the other side. She steps into the eye of the storm, and sees the culprit.

"Onion!" She shouts. He turns to look at her, the bracer wrapped around his arm, which was raised up to summon another ball of shadows. He hurls the ball down, and another figure arises. It charges her.  
"Onion!" Connie shouts again, her voice much more stern and angry. The shadow stops in its' tracks. Onion looks side to side nervously. Connie marches up to him.  
"Onion, what have I said about taking things without asking?" She asks. Onion just continues to avoid eye contact.  
"That doesn't belong to you. It is a very important gem artifact. And you need to return it." She says. Onion covers the bracer up, as if trying to hide it. Connie kneels down so she was at eye level.  
"Come on Onion." She continues, in a softer tone. "I'm asking nicely. Please give it back. I promise to do something else fun with you if you do that, alright?" She says.

Onion doesn't do anything for a few moments. Then he hands her the bracer.  
"Thank you Onion." She says, before putting on the bracer and raising her hand up. All the shadows in the town began to be sucked up back into the bracer. With it, the twister disappeared as well. And things were almost eerily quiet for a few seconds.  
"Connie! Are you alright?" Pearl asks, rushing up and hugging her.  
"I'm fine Mom. Here. I got the bracer back." She says, handing it over.  
"Good job Connie." Garnet says.  
"Oh I'm so glad this whole mess is over with." Pearl says. As if to contradict her a burning tire slowly rolls down the street behind her, bumping into a car and setting off the alarm.

"We better head back to the temple, and find a more secure location to hide the bracer so that it doesn't fall into human hands again." Garnet says.  
"Me and Onion are going to go down to the pier and wait for his dad if you need me." Connie says. She waves goodbye to the gems and heads to the docks.


	4. Pyramid raider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connie and the gems face a threat in the desert.

The crystal gems and Connie all clear the top of the sand dune, looking out across the vast sea of sand. The air shimmers with intense heat. Scattered around the desert were pillars and stair cases of sand. Occasionally a new pillar would rise up, or a staircase would collapse. Connie reaches into her pack, pulling out a water bottle. She drains the entire thing in one go, and sighs in satisfaction.

"My books never did the desert justice. We've only been here for a little while, and I've never been so thirsty or hot in my life." She says, putting the empty bottle back in her pack. Several more bottles still lay resting there for when she inevitably got thirsty again.  
"Maybe you wouldn't be so hot if you weren't wearing that scarf thingy." Amethyst points out.  
"No. This is what you're supposed to wear in the desert. It protects you from sunburn."  
"Whatever you say." Amethyst shrugs.

"This place is far worse than I thought. The desert glass is building without direction or reason. Who know's what kind of damage it could cause if this goes on?" Pearl says.  
"It doesn't really seem to be doing anything bad right now. This place is miles away from anyone after all." Connie comments.  
"Yes, but its' sphere of influence grows every day. It will begin to disrupt human life soon. And it is likely that it will start to cause real harm if left unchecked." Garnet lectures.  
"I see. We had better go bubble it right away then." Connie says.  
"It's best if you sit this one out." Garnet says.  
"What? Why can't I come with you?" Connie asks.  
"Because it's dangerous." Garnet replies.  
"Oh. I see. Tell me Mom, how many futures do you see where I get hurt this time?" Connie asks.  
"Nineteen. With subtle variations on each possible future." Garnet states flatly.  
"That's nothing. You can see seven possible futures where I get badly hurt just going to get donuts." Connie says.  
"It's only six ever since Pearl fixed the donut cooker." Garnet says.  
"Either way, that's just going down the beach to the edge of the city. There's always going to be a risk, and there's always going to be possible bad outcome. I don't want my life dictated by simply avoiding things because they might go wrong. How about you just forget the future vision, and ask yourself if you think I can handle this." Connie says passionately.

Garnet stares at her from behind her shades, her face unreadable. Pearl glances between the two several times. Then she laughs nervously, and puts her hand on Connie's shoulder.  
"Alright Connie, we understand you really like to go on missions with us. But it's probably best if we listen to-"  
"Very well then." Garnet interrupts.  
"Huh?" Pearl asks, head snapping around to look at Garnet.  
"Stay close. The desert glass can change the structure it resides in with ease. We can't afford to get split up." Garnet says, turning around and heading for the temple in the distance.  
"Understood ma'am!" Connie says, trotting after her.  
"I feel as if the world is conspiring against me sometimes." Pearl remarks as the two walk off.  
"Oh lighten up Pearl. Stop fighting the current and just go with the flow." Amethyst drawls, heading off after them. Pearl follows with an exasperated sigh.

The four of them make their way to the pyramid where the desert glass resided. Garnet leads the way through the entrance, and the others follow cautiously. Connie pulls out a flashlight as they make their way further into the dark building. Garnet leads them past several branching hallways and doors, on a path that seems to constantly be leading them up higher into the structure, until they come to a dead end.  
"What now?" Pearl asks.  
"We wait." Garnet says, slowly backing away from the wall.  
"For what?" Amethyst asks from the back of the group.  
Garnet grabs hold of Connie and Pearl's shoulders. Before either of them can ask, spikes grow out of the wall in front of them. The wall falls down, and Garnet pulls them both back, inches from being crushed.  
"That" Garnet says simply. She steps over the collapsed wall, leading the way through the hallway that had opened up behind it.  
"Cool." Connie says, hoping up after Garnet.  
"A little warning next time would be lovely." Pearl says exasperated.

A little more walking leads them to the heart of the temple. A large room lined with statues. Each one held their hand up. A rope connected each hand to the next. As they stepped into the room, an unseen mechanism sets fire to the rope. The room is lit on all sides. Whatever material the rope was made of seemed to refuse to burn away. At the far end of the room, on a pedestal, sat a pillow with a gem set into it.  
"That's what we're here for right?" Connie asks.  
"That's it." Pearl affirms.  
"Well let's go get it then." Amethyst says, striding forward. She hadn't taken two steps before the floor beneath her shifted violently. Garnet shoots forward and grabs the back of Amethyst's shirt, just as the majority of the floor in the room falls out from under her.  
"Whoa! That was close. Thanks Garnet." She says.  
"Don't mention it." Garnet says, placing her back on solid ground. The group looks out over the chasm where the floor used to be.  
"It looks like we can still make it if we jump between the pedestals of the statues here." Connie points out.  
"Good thinking. Let's hope nothing else falls out from under us." Pearl says, taking the lead. The gems jump from pedestal to pedestal with ease. Connie follows behind, Amethyst keeping an eye on her to make sure she makes the jumps. She could make them, but not as quickly as the gems did. And she was one awkward landing or misstep way from tumbling down into the darkness of the chasm below.

"Almost there." Pearl says, quickening her pace as she makes the last few jumps to their objective. But just as she was about to reach it, the pedestal the desert glass rested on shifts.  
"No!" Pearl says helplessly, as she watches it fall backwards into a hole that opens in the wall. The others all finish making their way over to where the desert glass had been moments before. They see the hole in the wall that it had fallen behind. It led to a slope down into the darkness.  
"Oh. This is just like in the second book of Abigail Fleischer, treasure hunter extraordinaire, where she slides down a dark passage into the unknown." Connie gushes.  
"And what was at the end of the passage in this book." Pearl asks.  
"A spike pit." Connie states. A few moments of silence pass.  
"Let's find another way down." Garnet suggests.  
"Sounds good to me." Amethyst agrees.  
"Well what's at the bottom of the first pit it opened up?" Connie asks, turning back to the chasm and shining her light down. It was a long way down, but the floor seemed clear.  
"There may be a way to the desert glass down there." Pearl says.

"Not sure how I'll get down though." Connie remarks.  
"Ahem." Garnet says, getting Connie's attention. She had knelled down, and was indicating her back with her thumb. "Hop on."  
Connie sequels with excitement and jumps up onto Garnet's back.  
"I thought you said you were too old for that." Amethyst mocks playfully.  
"True. But the sake of the world could very well rest on this piggy back ride. So I will make an exception." Connie declares.  
Pearl and Amethyst both giggle, and Connie joins along.  
"Hold on tight." Garnet says, giving Connie a moment to get ready. Garnet leaps down the chasm, summoning a glove and digging it into the side of the wall to slow her decent. When they had stopped, she leaps away and does the same on another wall, repeating the process until they had reached the bottom. Pearl and Amethyst, having already jumped down, awaited them.  
"Looks like we got an exit." Amethyst says, pointing to a hallway leading out of the bottom of the chasm.

The group enters the hallway, and navigates through a few more twisting passageways. A few times a trap is triggered, or a wall rises up and tries to split the group. But Garnet either sees these coming, or reacts quick enough to save them. They progress like this until they reach yet another wide open chamber.  
"There's the desert glass!" Connie shouts, pointing to a corner of the room. No sooner had she pointed it out then a small square platform connected to the wall rises out of the ground and scoops up the pillow.

"Crystal gems, don't let it escape again!" Garnet orders, charging forward. A wall rises up out of the ground and blocks her way.  
"That thing is mine!" Amethyst shouts, charging into a spin dash and using it to propel her up and over the wall. She jumps over to grab the pillow, but the small platform moves to the side, leaving her to fall to the ground.  
"Ugh. Hold still!" She shouts up uselessly at the pillow.  
Before Garnet can run around the wall that had risen up in front of her, another one rises up behind her. With a sudden movement, the walls close the distance between them. Garnet summons her weapons and reaches out on either side of her, barely stopping the walls from crushing her.  
"Garnet!" Pearl cries in worry.  
"Get the desert glass." She grunts, struggling to hold the two walls apart.

Connie has run out into the room, which was slowly becoming a chaotic mess. Pillars and columns rise out of the ground, or emerge from the walls, creating a labyrinth of moving parts. She takes a second to watch the room carefully, then makes her move. She jumps on top of a newly rising pillar. Then jumps from one pillar to the next, making her way to the desert glass. She's only a few jumps away when she's blindsided by a pillar shooting out of the wall. It hits her, and she barely manages to grab onto the edge of it before she falls to the ground. She struggles to keep her grip as she dangles above the ground.  
"Connie! Hold on, I'm coming!" Pearl shouts, leaping up to the pillar she was hanging from. Connie had managed to mostly pull herself up by the time she arrives. But she accepts a helping hand up regardless. She looks to the pillow and sees the platform it was on was putting up walls.  
"Oh no you don't!" Amethyst suddenly cries from on a pillar higher up than the others. She summons her whip and sends it flying into the closing gap between the pillow's defenses. With a yank, the pillow is pulled out into the open, and Amethyst leaps out to claim her prize.

"Woo hoo! I got i-" Amethyst starts. Then suddenly, there's an enormous explosion of sand. Connie closes her eyes and holds her breath, losing her bearings in the massive rush of tiny dirt particles. It takes only a moment to settle down, and Connie immediately starts digging up past the sand covering her. Her hand breaks through to the surface quickly, and she rushes to get her head above the ground so she can take a gasp of fresh air.  
The pyramid was gone, and the sun was once again beating down mercilessly on her. She pulls herself the rest of the way out of the ground and looks for the others. Pearl's head pokes out and shakes the sand out of her hair. Garnet follows some distance away, making her escape from the avalanche of shifting sand seem effortless.  
"Where's Amethyst? And the desert glass? Pearl asks worriedly as she finally emerges fully.  
As if in response, the sands around them started shifting. The beginnings of pillars began to emerge. Just as it looks like their fight was going to start anew, Amethyst's fist shot out from below the sand, clutching the pillow. The pillars that had begun to rise out of the desert collapse again as the desert glass emerges into the open air. Amethyst pokes her head out, and starts spitting out sand.

"Everyone saw that right?" She asks.  
"Yes." Garnet says, plucking Amethyst out of the ground like a carrot.  
"Well done Amethyst. If that fight had dragged on any longer we would have been in trouble." Pearl commends.  
"I wasn't going to let some over hyped throw cushion get the best of me." Amethyst says smugly, flipping the desert glass around in her hands a few times.  
"Amethyst please bubble that thing. If it lands on the sand, we're going to have to do all of this over again." Pearl says.  
"Oh relax, I'm not going to drop it." She says, tossing it from one hand to another over her head.  
"Let's just get back to the warp." Pearl says, annoyed.

"That was some cool jumping you did back there in the last room Connie." Amethyst praises, tucking the desert glass under her arm.  
"You really think so?" Connie asks.  
"I know so. You would have had that pillow if it hadn't smashed you in the chest near the end there." Amethyst says.  
"And good job pointing out that path around the room. You held your own on the mission today. I'm very proud." Pearl adds.  
"Thanks guys. I really appreciate that you think I did wHOAH! What's that?" Connie asks, drawing her sword. The others summon their weapons as well, looking to what Connie had spotted. Standing between them and the warp pad was a lion. A strange enough sight in the desert. But what made it even more shocking was that the lion was a bright pink color. Its' eyes glow as it approached them slowly. It's about thirty paces out before it stops, looking at them. Before any of them can make a move, it yawns deeply, and slumps down to the sand.

"Uh... what should we do?" Connie asks.  
"I'm not sure. Garnet what is this?" Pearl asks.  
"I have no idea." Garnet replies.  
"What is it doing here? It's no coincidence it was this close to the desert glass right?" Connie deduces.  
"Eh. Whatever. The big lug just wants to take a nap in the sand. It's not hurting anyone." Amethyst says.  
"So should we just... leave it alone?" Connie asks, unsure.  
"...I see no reason to disturb it. Let's just get to the warp." Garnet says. The gems and Connie all give the lion a wide berth as they make their way to the warp pad. They all stand on it, and prepare to leave the desert. Connie takes one last look at the lion. It had turned its' head to watch their departure. And with a flash of light, the warp was activated, and they were gone.


End file.
